Keystone files to start Canada-US pipeline in May

[frawin]

This is really a great project, it is just not a big enough capacity line. Approximately every 30 minutes we use crude and products in the amount of the initial capacity of what  this line will be. At least this will give us some added supply from a friendly neighbor. I wish I was 40 years younger, there are some really exciting projects I would like to work on.

Keystone files to start Canada-US pipeline in May

TUE APR 20

HTTP://www.reuters.com/ARTICLE/IDUSN2011307020100420?TYPE=MARKETSNEWS.

* 435,000 bpd oil transport tariffs effective May 15

* Commercial operation should start in June - source (Recasts, adds details throughout)

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) has filed with U.S. regulators to begin operating its 435,000-barrel-per-day Keystone pipeline to deliver Canadian crude into U.S. markets as early as May 15.

The filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, dated April 15 and viewed by Reuters on Tuesday, says Keystone's oil transport tariffs become effective May 15, allowing the pipeline to begin service as early as that date.

Keystone will ramp up to full capacity by the first quarter of 2011, the filing says.

A company source familiar with TransCanada's plans told Reuters on Tuesday the company planned to bring Keystone into service by late June, not mid-May. The source said the filing makes tariffs effective as of the earlier date, but TransCanada hasn't changed its original plans to begin operating in June.

Russ Girling, the incoming chief executive at TransCanada, Canada's biggest pipeline company, told Reuters in late March that Keystone was expected to begin commercial crude transportation in mid to late June.

The $5.2 billion, 2,151-mile (3,461 km) Keystone pipeline system is slated to carry Canadian crude from Alberta to markets in the U.S. Midwest initially, starting with deliveries as far south as Patoka, Illinois.

By early 2011, Keystone will be extended to reach Cushing, Oklahoma, and its throughput capacity will increase to 591,000 bpd, the filing said. It will take Keystone from mid-2010 until the first quarter of 2011 to ramp up to full capacity.

Keystone is among several massive pipeline projects that are helping to increase the volume of crude oil supplied by Canada into U.S. markets, which has helped to make Canada the largest crude supplier to the United States in recent years.

An extension of the Keystone project would involve delivering crude all the way to the U.S. Gulf Coast of Texas and expanding total throughput capacity to 1.1 million bpd as early as 2013, according to TransCanada filings.